S&P 500   4,282.37
DOW   33,762.76
QQQ   354.65
What Should Investors Make of These 3 Dividend Cuts?
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
CrowdStrike: Another Tech Stock to Buy on the Dip 
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“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
Constellation Brands Taps into Growth: Analysts Bullish on Stock
Salesforce: Time to Snap it Up as the Market Buys the Dip?
[BREAKING] Pentagon to Spend Billions on "Living Missile" (Ad)
MarketBeat Week in Review – 5/29 - 6/2
How major US stock indexes fared Friday 6/2/2023
S&P 500   4,282.37
DOW   33,762.76
QQQ   354.65
What Should Investors Make of These 3 Dividend Cuts?
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
CrowdStrike: Another Tech Stock to Buy on the Dip 
Trading Channel Breakout in Lululemon Brought by Earnings
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
Constellation Brands Taps into Growth: Analysts Bullish on Stock
Salesforce: Time to Snap it Up as the Market Buys the Dip?
[BREAKING] Pentagon to Spend Billions on "Living Missile" (Ad)
MarketBeat Week in Review – 5/29 - 6/2
How major US stock indexes fared Friday 6/2/2023
S&P 500   4,282.37
DOW   33,762.76
QQQ   354.65
What Should Investors Make of These 3 Dividend Cuts?
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
CrowdStrike: Another Tech Stock to Buy on the Dip 
Trading Channel Breakout in Lululemon Brought by Earnings
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
Constellation Brands Taps into Growth: Analysts Bullish on Stock
Salesforce: Time to Snap it Up as the Market Buys the Dip?
[BREAKING] Pentagon to Spend Billions on "Living Missile" (Ad)
MarketBeat Week in Review – 5/29 - 6/2
How major US stock indexes fared Friday 6/2/2023
S&P 500   4,282.37
DOW   33,762.76
QQQ   354.65
What Should Investors Make of These 3 Dividend Cuts?
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
CrowdStrike: Another Tech Stock to Buy on the Dip 
Trading Channel Breakout in Lululemon Brought by Earnings
“One-Stock Millionaire” IGNORES 99.9% of the Market (Ad)
Constellation Brands Taps into Growth: Analysts Bullish on Stock
Salesforce: Time to Snap it Up as the Market Buys the Dip?
[BREAKING] Pentagon to Spend Billions on "Living Missile" (Ad)
MarketBeat Week in Review – 5/29 - 6/2
How major US stock indexes fared Friday 6/2/2023
NYSE:MRK

Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Competitors

$112.52
+1.59 (+1.43%)
(As of 06/2/2023 ET)
Compare
Today's Range
$110.72
$112.73
50-Day Range
$104.92
$118.38
52-Week Range
$83.05
$119.65
Volume
5.79 million shs
Average Volume
6.14 million shs
Market Capitalization
$285.51 billion
P/E Ratio
21.98
Dividend Yield
2.60%
Price Target
$120.75

MRK vs. ABBV, PFE, JNJ, LLY, BMY, ZTS, AZN, NVS, NVO, and ABT

Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include AbbVie (ABBV), Pfizer (PFE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Eli Lilly and (LLY), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Zoetis (ZTS), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO), and Abbott Laboratories (ABT). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.

Merck & Co., Inc. vs.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Merck & Co., Inc. has a net margin of 22.52% compared to AbbVie's net margin of 13.37%. AbbVie's return on equity of 153.92% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
AbbVie 13.37% 153.92% 16.91%
Merck & Co., Inc. 22.52% 37.92% 15.90%

AbbVie received 349 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.22% of users gave AbbVie an outperform vote while only 66.79% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
AbbVieOutperform Votes
1282
73.22%
Underperform Votes
469
26.78%
Merck & Co., Inc.Outperform Votes
933
66.79%
Underperform Votes
464
33.21%

67.7% of AbbVie shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.9% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of AbbVie shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

AbbVie currently has a consensus price target of $163.40, indicating a potential upside of 19.41%. Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus price target of $120.75, indicating a potential upside of 7.31%. Given AbbVie's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AbbVie is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
AbbVie
0 Sell rating(s)
8 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.43
Merck & Co., Inc.
0 Sell rating(s)
7 Hold rating(s)
16 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.70

In the previous week, AbbVie had 2 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for AbbVie and 13 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat AbbVie's score of 0.27 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
AbbVie
4 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
6 Neutral mention(s)
2 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
Merck & Co., Inc.
4 Very Positive mention(s)
5 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
2 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

AbbVie has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Merck & Co., Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than AbbVie. Merck & Co., Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AbbVie, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
AbbVie$58.05 billion4.16$11.84 billion$4.2332.35
Merck & Co., Inc.$59.28 billion4.82$14.52 billion$5.1221.98

AbbVie pays an annual dividend of $5.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. AbbVie pays out 140.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 57.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AbbVie has increased its dividend for 51 consecutive years and Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. AbbVie is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

AbbVie beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.


New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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MRK vs. The Competition

MetricMerck & Co., Inc.Pharmaceutical IndustryMedical SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$281.48B$5.79B$4.56B$14.63B
Dividend Yield2.63%2.68%2.41%4.09%
P/E Ratio21.985.0095.6718.77
Price / Sales4.82325.013,589.269.07
Price / Cash12.2720.1391.2123.11
Price / Book6.095.295.159.19
Net Income$14.52B$188.97M$117.81M$898.41M
7 Day Performance1.31%2.91%1.92%2.52%
1 Month Performance-4.82%3.40%2.27%2.69%
1 Year Performance25.15%18.87%12.28%-7.88%

Merck & Co., Inc. Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ABBV
AbbVie
2.7203 of 5 stars
$136.48
-0.8%
$163.40
+19.7%
-6.8%$240.79B$58.05B32.2650,000Options Volume
PFE
Pfizer
3.0419 of 5 stars
$37.02
-1.5%
$47.33
+27.9%
-27.2%$208.99B$100.33B7.2983,000
JNJ
Johnson & Johnson
2.4265 of 5 stars
$154.36
+0.0%
$173.00
+12.1%
-11.4%$401.14B$94.94B32.29155,800Analyst Report
LLY
Eli Lilly and
2.9302 of 5 stars
$427.51
+0.4%
$425.05
-0.6%
+46.2%$405.82B$28.54B67.9739,000Analyst Upgrade
Insider Selling
BMY
Bristol-Myers Squibb
2.4892 of 5 stars
$63.70
-0.2%
$79.43
+24.7%
-12.5%$133.82B$46.16B18.5734,300Analyst Revision
ZTS
Zoetis
2.8981 of 5 stars
$161.00
-2.3%
$221.14
+37.4%
-0.5%$74.40B$8.09B36.3413,800
AZN
AstraZeneca
2.4974 of 5 stars
$71.43
-1.5%
$103.00
+44.2%
+8.4%$221.41B$44.35B46.9983,500Analyst Revision
NVS
Novartis
1.9436 of 5 stars
$96.55
-1.3%
$82.25
-14.8%
+10.1%$204.65B$50.55B29.71101,703News Coverage
NVO
Novo Nordisk A/S
2.7025 of 5 stars
$159.81
-1.9%
$383.33
+139.9%
+39.5%$361.65B$25.06B42.0655,185
ABT
Abbott Laboratories
3.0163 of 5 stars
$101.72
-1.1%
$121.26
+19.2%
-11.3%$176.89B$43.65B30.92115,000Analyst Downgrade

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This page (NYSE:MRK) was last updated on 6/3/2023 by MarketBeat.com Staff

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